Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004)

In a word: Ick. In two more words: Don’t bother.

Robert A. Heinlein’s novel Starship Troopers was a story about the conflicts inherent in anybody in military service. The tear between duty and what’s right. The often necessary evils one must do in order to save the greater good….

Then there was the 1997 film of the same name. While taking most of that and chucking it out the window, it at least served as a strange sort of parody of war movies and war-time propaganda, with the smiling faces of the young attractive folks torn to shreds by the bugs, and the constant happy recruitment and gung-ho going on around them….

And then there is Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation. Directed by visual effects genius Phil Tippett, this travesty should have been left as a proposal buried on somebody’s desk.

Here’s the rub: Take every over-the-top war movie cliche and characterization you can think of, and throw them into a squad pinned down by a nasty evil enemy. Then multiply that by 10. Then introduce some silly and over-the-top effects and try to end the picture on a high note. That’s what you get here. A whole lot of bad acting, corny writing, and even more bad acting.

The only high point of the film is a detailed look at Kelly Carlson’s anatomy. Yeah, that’s about it, really. Guys of the world rejoice.

I imagine the producers and Tippett were going for the same sort of thing that they pulled off with the original film. Unfortunately the whole thing is sorely lacking in combat, as the story turns into a haunted house-style monster movie real quick. There’s no tongue-in-cheek parody of the war machine here, just a lot of overplayed cliches. Haven’t I said that already? Yeah, I did. Two stars, one for trying and one for Kelly Carlson, whoo!

Here’s a trailer. Don’t believe what you see here. I think they squeezed every human-vs-bug combat scene into it, and none of the other junk, which makes up most of the film.

Related posts:

1. Two Men Went to War (2004)
2. The Fallen (2004)
3. BattleGround: 21 Days on the Empire’s Edge (2004)
4. Too Late The Hero (1970)
5. Der Untergang, aka Downfall (2004)
6. Some Kind of Hero (1982)
7. In Enemy Hands (2004)
8. R-Point (2004)
9. Company K (2004)
10. The Big Red One: The Reconstruction (1980/2004)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 7:35 am and is filed under 2000s, Other War Movies, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.